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Selling More Than a 30-Second Spot: Advertising That Gets Renewed · Leading Local Insights

• 0:34
  Mike Boland: Hello, everyone, and welcome to BIA's leading local podcast.
• 0:38
  Mike Boland: I'm your host, Mike Boland, and our guest today is Josh Good, who's manager of marketing and revenue enablement for Megaphone TV.
• 0:46
  Mike Boland: So, Josh, welcome to the program.
• 0:48
  Josh Good: Hey Mike, thanks so much for having me on.
• 0:50
  Mike Boland: Yeah, absolutely.
• 0:51
  Mike Boland: So we actually have a lot to get into.
• 0:53
  Mike Boland: Uh, megaphone TV, for those unfamiliar, is pioneering some interactive ad formats that we'll be getting into.
• 1:00
  Mike Boland: Um, and particularly we're zeroing in today in some of the growing applicability of interactive advertising and megaphone TV's sort of particular flavor of an innovation with some leading local home services categories, some big spenders in local advertising, specifically HVAC.
• 1:20
  Mike Boland: So the goal today really is to uh accept the challenge of making a discussion about heating and air conditioning fun and engaging, right, Josh?
• 1:29
  Josh Good: That's right.
• 1:30
  Josh Good: That's what we're gonna do.
• 1:31
  Mike Boland: Yep.
• 1:32
  Mike Boland: Okay, so Josh, um lot to get into.
• 1:34
  Mike Boland: But before we do that, um, let's sort of set the stage here with some more context.
• 1:38
  Mike Boland: So tell us more about yourself, your role at Megaphone, and your sort of origin story with the business.
• 1:45
  Josh Good: Yeah, so I've been in broadcasting for 20-something years, came up on the news and content side of it, and kind of rose from there, reporter, anchor, news director, and then made that pivot over to the sales side of things with a general manager role in radio, um, and ended up here at Megaphone.
• 2:05
  Josh Good: And how that kind of happened is I had worked with Megaphone.
• 2:09
  Josh Good: Uh, they were a vendor of mine when I was news director in Roanoke, Virginia, and uh it kind of came full circle.
• 2:15
  Josh Good: Uh, came to Megaphone and now helping uh local salespeople uh generate more revenue using interactive advertising.
• 2:24
  Mike Boland: Nice.
• 2:25
  Mike Boland: And the one thing that sticks out there to me is that we're both recovering journalists, uh me, me in print, you with you with uh broadcast.
• 2:32
  Mike Boland: But uh so um same thing, stage setting, context.
• 2:38
  Mike Boland: Tell us a little bit more uh about megaphone.
• 2:40
  Mike Boland: Um, you know, the the we we talk, I've mentioned briefly interactive ads.
• 2:45
  Mike Boland: What are your things you're doing there?
• 2:47
  Mike Boland: What is it?
• 2:48
  Mike Boland: Who is it for?
• 2:49
  Mike Boland: What what's what's sort of the pitch there?
• 2:53
  Josh Good: Yeah, so megaphone TV, we are on a mission to help local broadcasters grow revenue, increase rates, and keep those those advertisers around for a long time.
• 3:04
  Josh Good: We want by the end of the campaign for you to be set up perfectly to have that conversation with the advertiser and start talking about renewals.
• 3:12
  Josh Good: And how we do that is it can be in content time, it can be in commercial time, it could be digital only, but that's through things like question of the day, user-generated content sponsorships, um, polls, trivia, all of that kind of bundled up.
• 3:28
  Josh Good: And then we take that and help you sell it.
• 3:31
  Josh Good: We're with you from the beginning until the reports at the very end.
• 3:35
  Josh Good: So again, we know that TV stations and broadcasters as a whole are doing so much more with so much less these days, and that's where megaphone and specifically our ad growth services team, that's where they come into play.
• 3:50
  Mike Boland: Yeah.
• 3:50
  Mike Boland: So that's interesting.
• 3:52
  Mike Boland: So, so like backing up a bit, you go to go to market through your channel partners, who, as you mentioned, are sort of media companies.
• 3:58
  Mike Boland: So they help you sort of scale and sell into the fragmented local market.
• 4:02
  Mike Boland: But more importantly, I like the way you framed it in that you're really sort of helping them enhance and entice their bundles, right?
• 4:10
  Mike Boland: And in there, that's always sort of the common value exchange and value proposition for you know, sort of ad tech players and media resellers.
• 4:20
  Mike Boland: But I think it's it's interesting.
• 4:21
  Mike Boland: You you do a lot more for your channel, such as educate them on selling into key verticals and how to best use your interactive formats as like icing on the cake of their sort of sales bundle.
• 4:34
  Mike Boland: So tell us more about that relationship in terms of your empowering them more to sort of, you know, increase their close rates and just other things that they're going for.
• 4:44
  Josh Good: Yeah, we work with local broadcasters all around the globe, and what we do is we help them formulate from the pitch to execution.
• 4:53
  Josh Good: So we'll meet one-on-one with whether it be a sales team, a sales manager, or an individual AE.
• 4:59
  Josh Good: We will start there talking about the client, their goals, and what this campaign really needs to look like.
• 5:06
  Josh Good: From there, our ad growth team will put together a fully custom pitch deck for the station to then take to their client and pitch this interactive advertising element.
• 5:16
  Josh Good: Like I said, whether it's question of the day or a user-generated content campaign or an interactive commercial, and we are able to help them bundle and find what is going to work best.
• 5:27
  Josh Good: You know, um it could have a contest or a sweepstakes included.
• 5:31
  Josh Good: It doesn't have to.
• 5:32
  Josh Good: We handle all of that on the back end.
• 5:34
  Josh Good: So once the AE or the sales manager reaches back out and says, hey, this deal has closed, now we go into setting it up and we take care of all of the back end for the stations as well.
• 5:45
  Josh Good: So we're helping them formulate the pitch and also helping create it and sending the station the embed code that goes on their website.
• 5:54
  Mike Boland: Yeah, so that's that's a question too.
• 5:56
  Mike Boland: So thank you for clarifying that.
• 5:58
  Mike Boland: Like the fulfillment, you're doing a lot of the fulfillment.
• 6:00
  Mike Boland: So that's that's absolutely an attractive proposition for a lot of those um, those media partners.
• 6:06
  Mike Boland: So let's talk about sort of how it looks.
• 6:09
  Mike Boland: What does the experience look like from the perspective of like the business?
• 6:15
  Mike Boland: I mean, is there a range of options if they want to have some control?
• 6:18
  Mike Boland: Like you're doing a lot of the fulfillment, but what are they seeing on their end in terms of their, you know, analytics, return on ad spend, or creative or any of that type of stuff?
• 6:29
  Josh Good: Yeah, so what we do is we work really closely with the the TV stations.
• 6:35
  Josh Good: They're fully in control of um of pricing that.
• 6:38
  Josh Good: There is no RevShare, anything like that.
• 6:40
  Josh Good: Um, we are a subscription service, so we are here for you to come and use as a resource as the broadcaster.
• 6:48
  Josh Good: Um and yeah, megaphone is is intended for us to be a bundle within what you're already doing to enhance it and now charge a premium because you're getting people in, let's say, an interactive commercial, right?
• 7:03
  Josh Good: So you've taken a normal 30-second spot and you've now made it an interactive commercial where you've got a QR code on the screen and it can be asking any sort of question or poll or trivia, um, and scan the QR code where the user then goes and engages and they see the client's inline offer, a pop-up offer after they vote, and then a click through to the client's website.
• 7:29
  Josh Good: If it's user-generated content or if it is a contest or sweepstakes, that's where the true, true value is.
• 7:37
  Josh Good: Because what our clients want these days as you're talking to business owners, is they want that data.
• 7:44
  Josh Good: They want names, email, phone numbers, things like that.
• 7:47
  Josh Good: And so through having users upload um pictures, videos, or enter into a contest or sweepstakes, we always include an opt-in for more information from the client.
• 7:59
  Josh Good: So we're able to provide at the end of the campaign not just the normal reporting that you would see, but also that PII that is very important and very valuable to these businesses.
• 8:11
  Mike Boland: Yeah, and getting that information, um, you know, the PIA data, the stuff, valuable inputs for one's CRM system, is always very difficult to do.
• 8:20
  Mike Boland: And it seems like you've sort of created this vessel that is fun, it's interactive, and people feel sort of incentivized to share that information because it's an interactive, like you said, it's a poll, it's a sweepstakes, it's a clear value exchange for the user.
• 8:35
  Mike Boland: It's not just some sort of like blind give me your data, which always seems to be the case.
• 8:41
  Mike Boland: So like it's it it's it's great.
• 8:43
  Mike Boland: I mean, it's a very clever way to get that high value data for the business.
• 8:47
  Mike Boland: And it's it's no surprise that the you know, your media company partners, the broadcasters, love you because they are indeed enticing that bundle because their customer, the the businesses that are buying these bundles, love the fact that they're getting that data.
• 9:05
  Mike Boland: They're not just getting awareness, they're not just getting analytics, but they're also getting data for their CRM systems that then helps them target better in their sort of subsequent campaigns.
• 9:15
  Mike Boland: Is that is that a fair way to look at it?
• 9:17
  Mike Boland: It just seems like it's a sort of sequence of of value.
• 9:21
  Josh Good: Yeah, I think so.
• 9:22
  Josh Good: I think it's a really fair way to put it.
• 9:24
  Josh Good: And you know, it can it can be, it doesn't have to be we're giving away a free car, right?
• 9:30
  Josh Good: Like people will scan the QR code and give you their data for a hundred dollar visa gift card.
• 9:35
  Josh Good: Like that is that is where you can start at.
• 9:38
  Josh Good: So it doesn't have to be a really high-ticket item for people to scan and engage and have fun with it, um, especially if the questions that you're asking are engaging and it is going to um it's gonna generate that kind of uh the brand awareness.
• 9:56
  Josh Good: It kind of bundles it all together.
• 9:58
  Josh Good: And, you know, we've talked a lot about in-commercial time sponsorships, but there's also in-show sponsorships for newscasts, lifestyle shows, things like that, from pet of the day, um, what popular campaign we're working on with a lot of stations on right now is back to school photos.
• 10:15
  Josh Good: People want to show off pictures of their kids.
• 10:17
  Josh Good: And as the former newsie and me, I like to say that people want to see pictures of their kids on TV when they've not committed a crime.
• 10:23
  Josh Good: So it's a great way for people to do that.
• 10:26
  Josh Good: And they're gonna go back day after day and upload pictures, and then they're gonna watch your show.
• 10:31
  Josh Good: So it's also helping with that.
• 10:34
  Josh Good: We've seen many partners that will park contests at the bottom of the hour so that they're getting you to stick around.
• 10:42
  Josh Good: Hey, coming up at the bottom of the hour, we have a chance for you to win a trip or a gift card or whatever, and you've got that advertiser locked in there as well.
• 10:52
  Josh Good: So that's certainly stuff that we can do in content time.
• 10:56
  Josh Good: Um, and and and all of these widgets live as an embed code.
• 11:00
  Josh Good: It's embedded on the station's website.
• 11:02
  Josh Good: So um it's really user-friendly.
• 11:05
  Josh Good: We are completely a white label company, so you're able to kind of own the whole process.
• 11:12
  Josh Good: And going back to our uh pitch decks, we will create a custom pitch deck for for the AEs to take to their clients.
• 11:21
  Josh Good: And in that, you have a fully working demo with a working QR code in the client's branding.
• 11:28
  Josh Good: So your client doesn't have to imagine what this is gonna look like.
• 11:31
  Josh Good: You walk in with a fully formed campaign.
• 11:34
  Josh Good: Yeah, and I I really love it when we have AEs that are in that are pitching these campaigns, and the client starts saying, Well, could we move this here and could we do this and that?
• 11:46
  Josh Good: Absolutely we can, and congratulations on the sale because you've if we've got a client who is is asking about the creative direction for graphics and stuff, um, you've already closed the deal.
• 11:57
  Josh Good: So congratulations.
• 11:58
  Mike Boland: Yeah, that's a good sign.
• 11:59
  Mike Boland: Right.
• 12:00
  Mike Boland: So um let's talk about the the sort of the KPIs and the advantages of these sort of interactive formats.
• 12:08
  Mike Boland: So there's clearly a lot of advantages for like the the sales teams, as we just went over, right?
• 12:13
  Mike Boland: Your your partners, your your broadcast partners in selling it.
• 12:17
  Mike Boland: It's really serving them, their clients, the advertisers, and the the selling points.
• 12:23
  Mike Boland: We just talked about one and that they're getting lots of great data.
• 12:26
  Mike Boland: But what about the sort of the sheer performance of the this format?
• 12:31
  Mike Boland: We're gonna get into some examples again in some home services and just some sort of campaign sort of metrics and things like that.
• 12:37
  Mike Boland: But but at a higher level, do you have any sort of metrics to point to for the format as a whole in terms of like, you know, outperforming traditional benchmarks in sort of display advertising or anything like that?
• 12:51
  Mike Boland: Like, what are we talking about here in terms of the engagement of what you're doing?
• 12:56
  Josh Good: Yeah, we see higher than I would say the industry average for a click-through to the client's website.
• 13:02
  Josh Good: Um, but there are so many variables that go into that.
• 13:05
  Josh Good: You know, what are the station's ratings?
• 13:07
  Josh Good: What does that look like?
• 13:08
  Josh Good: There's so many variables of how many eyeballs are on the commercial.
• 13:12
  Josh Good: Um, those are that's information that that I typically don't know, but I can tell you that of the people that end up on the landing page, um, we are above the industry average of click-throughs to the client's website, which is the goal, right?
• 13:27
  Josh Good: We want people engaging with the content, clicking through to the client's website, and trying to kind of cheat code that seven touch points that somebody needs before they make a purchase.
• 13:38
  Mike Boland: Yeah.
• 13:39
  Mike Boland: And it's probably already clear from our discussion so far, but let's take a step back and sort of visualize this for our audience.
• 13:46
  Mike Boland: The the types of places they may see these ads.
• 13:49
  Mike Boland: Like this could be sort of CTV spots where it's QR code calls to action.
• 13:54
  Mike Boland: It could be online interactive where you're sort of clicking on an online poll.
• 13:58
  Mike Boland: What are what are some of the ways that it's where where are they going to see these?
• 14:02
  Mike Boland: I guess is the question.
• 14:03
  Josh Good: You can put it anywhere and everywhere.
• 14:05
  Josh Good: Um, at the end of the day, you have a URL that has some sort of engagement or just a scan to enter for a contest or sweepstakes.
• 14:14
  Josh Good: Um, so you just have a URL.
• 14:16
  Josh Good: So you can put that anywhere.
• 14:18
  Josh Good: You can put the piece of video anywhere you have video.
• 14:21
  Josh Good: You could put a banner ad and it clicks through to this interactive experience.
• 14:25
  Josh Good: Um, so there's a lot of flexibility with it.
• 14:28
  Josh Good: And something I like to remind people of is don't think of megaphone as something else to sell.
• 14:34
  Josh Good: Megaphone folds in perfectly with what you're already doing.
• 14:39
  Josh Good: It enhances it and it um and it generates more revenue and you can increase rates that way.
• 14:46
  Mike Boland: Yeah, it does seem highly adaptable to just a media bundle, a media mix, no matter what you're doing.
• 14:51
  Mike Boland: It seems like this sort of just like drives either other pieces of that media mix or sits alongside them in in terms of just an overall um, you know, overall higher engagement.
• 15:03
  Mike Boland: Um, so that that makes a lot of sense.
• 15:05
  Mike Boland: Now, speaking of versatility uh and applicability, um, let's go into some of the parts I keep teasing, which is that like there are certain sort of vertical domain expertise you've developed in a lot of these high-value sort of local business verticals.
• 15:20
  Mike Boland: Um, and one we're gonna focus on today, as I mentioned, is HVAC.
• 15:23
  Mike Boland: But before going there, tell us about how you sort of divide up the world in terms of verticals because it's highly applicable.
• 15:31
  Mike Boland: I mean, we're talking about HVAC today, but you're just just to be clear for our audience, you know, you guys can do everything from restaurants to roofers.
• 15:38
  Mike Boland: Um, some of these ad units may be more applicable to certain types of businesses than others.
• 15:43
  Mike Boland: But tell us about how you sort of look at the addressable market.
• 15:48
  Josh Good: Yeah, and it's everybody that AEs in broadcast facilities across the country are already pitching to.
• 15:55
  Josh Good: Um, some of the most um, I would say, really high on the list of being good fits for interactive sponsorships and advertising are gonna be live events and venues.
• 16:05
  Josh Good: We see a lot of that in interactive commercials.
• 16:08
  Josh Good: Giving away a pair of concert tickets.
• 16:10
  Josh Good: Well, if you have this favorite artist and you have a favorite song, you're a pretty good fit to click through and buy tickets.
• 16:17
  Josh Good: So it's a really good way to engage people.
• 16:19
  Josh Good: You've got an artist coming into town, scan the QR code, tell us who what what song is your favorite from this artist out of these four.
• 16:27
  Josh Good: And if you have scanned the QR code and voted, you're a really good contender to go to the concert.
• 16:33
  Josh Good: So then you're delivered that pop-up ad to click through and purchase tickets all right there.
• 16:38
  Josh Good: Um so so that's that's one um one area of that we see a lot of success.
• 16:45
  Josh Good: Um, another one is through um personal entry attorneys.
• 16:49
  Josh Good: Um, that's another category that we do really well with.
• 16:53
  Josh Good: Um and I know I've mentioned click through to the client's website.
• 16:57
  Josh Good: It doesn't always need to be or have to be a click-through to the client's website.
• 17:02
  Josh Good: It can be download their app if that's something that the business is really pushing.
• 17:06
  Josh Good: So those are all things that kind of come out in our consultation calls with these AEs and sales managers of what is the goal of the client?
• 17:14
  Josh Good: Okay, if it's to get uh a download of an app, well, okay, how are we going to incentivize the viewer and get them engaged?
• 17:23
  Josh Good: Is it a fun question?
• 17:25
  Josh Good: Is it a giveaway of some sort?
• 17:27
  Josh Good: Download the app and get a free coffee, um, or is it both?
• 17:30
  Josh Good: And those are things that we'll talk about on a case-by-case basis with the AEs and the sales leaders.
• 17:37
  Mike Boland: Yeah, and you mentioned personal injury law.
• 17:40
  Mike Boland: I think the the first like six or seven words of every single personal injury law video ad spot I've ever seen is have you been injured in a, you know, dot dot dot.
• 17:50
  Mike Boland: That seems like it's conducive to a survey.
• 17:53
  Josh Good: It sure is.
• 17:54
  Josh Good: It sure is.
• 17:55
  Josh Good: And and we can also share for anybody that opted in to learn more information from the client, we could share with the client how people answered those questions.
• 18:05
  Josh Good: So if you're asking a question like that or another kind of question in the HVAC realm that we'll talk about here in a little bit, um, you're getting that data of how they answered and their name, email, phone number, and whatever data it is we're we're asking for, as long as they opt in for more information from the client.
• 18:26
  Mike Boland: Yeah, well, that makes sense.
• 18:27
  Mike Boland: So yeah, let's keep uh let's do what we keep teasing, which is jump into HVAC.
• 18:31
  Mike Boland: And um for for the full context of our audience, the reason we sort of chose this topic is it's sort of like almost underrated, not talked about a much uh how high value it is.
• 18:42
  Mike Boland: Um, and it's particularly conducive to all of the things that Josh is talking about.
• 18:46
  Mike Boland: So we thought to stay focused, let's let's pick a vertical and drill down, show rather than tell, in terms of what uh megaphone TV is doing.
• 18:53
  Mike Boland: And and before we do that, Josh, I'll sort of set the stage here with some BIA um sort of forecasting and market sizing data that sort of at least quantifies the value of what we're about to talk about.
• 19:05
  Mike Boland: So HVAC um in total, local HVAC advertisers in the aggregate will spell about uh excuse me, spend about 2.4 billion this year, and that's up about 23 million year over year.
• 19:19
  Mike Boland: And it continues to be a vertical that's sort of hungry for customer acquisition.
• 19:23
  Mike Boland: And that's I think what makes it pretty opportune for what you're doing.
• 19:27
  Mike Boland: And then, you know, just some more context there, within that ad spend, that 2.4 billion, the the channel breakdown is is mobile is in the lead, unsurprisingly, but but TV is actually up there.
• 19:39
  Mike Boland: Um, HVAC advertisers actually spend more on television than any other home services subvertical, except for home centers, so retail home centers.
• 19:50
  Mike Boland: So it's up there in terms of TV spend.
• 19:53
  Mike Boland: Um, and then the last thing I'll say there is there's a lot of evidence that HVAC, like many other categories, has rising standards around really seeing their return on ad spend.
• 20:05
  Mike Boland: You know, they still value reach and brand awareness, but they're increasingly asking more about attribution and engagement and a lot of that sort of lower funnel measurable outcomes.
• 20:16
  Mike Boland: So, with that sort of backdrop on the category, I guess what I'll ask you first, Josh, is does that align with your experience in in you know dealing directly um with HVAC?
• 20:29
  Mike Boland: Um, what are the questions they're asking, right?
• 20:32
  Mike Boland: Like what are their hopes and dreams and pain points and and how is megaphone TV and all the things we just talked about, like sort of meeting that moment?
• 20:42
  Josh Good: Well, first let me just talk a little bit about the HVAC category.
• 20:46
  Josh Good: Um with that, I think it's a great way for us to um to talk about megaphone as a whole because it works really well, no matter the market size, and HVAC is a perfect example of that.
• 21:02
  Josh Good: It doesn't matter if you're in a really small market and you don't have a lot of resources, or if you're in a really large market and you have a ton of resources.
• 21:11
  Josh Good: Um, that doesn't matter because it works in every market, no matter of market size.
• 21:16
  Josh Good: And with that, I will say, yeah, we see stations having great success in pitching HVAC customers because they are hungry, they are advertising everywhere, and now you're showing that ROI.
• 21:30
  Josh Good: I can show you how many people scanned the QR code, entered this contest to win a free tune-up or a hundred dollar visa gift card or whatever it may end up being, but I can show you those numbers.
• 21:43
  Josh Good: Uh, one of my favorite interactive commercials that that we have uh we've had a partner do is they were asking in that commercial, how old is your HVAC unit?
• 21:53
  Josh Good: And then gave three or four different options for people to choose from.
• 21:57
  Josh Good: So at the end of this campaign, the client was receiving this opt-in list with names, email, phone numbers, plus how old the the person's HVAC system is.
• 22:08
  Josh Good: So they have this full picture to add into their CRM and be able to really go to town, really drill down and know exactly in the cycle where this person's at and what they need to be pitching them.
• 22:20
  Josh Good: Is it an annual tune up?
• 22:21
  Josh Good: Um, or are we pitching them that we need to come in and take a look and replace their unit?
• 22:26
  Josh Good: So those are some of the really great ways that I have seen HVAC perform.
• 22:32
  Josh Good: On the flip side, Side, it doesn't have to be so one-to-one to the advertiser, and that's something that we're constantly talking with our partners about.
• 22:41
  Josh Good: Don't be so narrowly focused that it needs to be how old is your HVAC system, right?
• 22:48
  Josh Good: Like this can be brand awareness.
• 22:50
  Josh Good: We had a partner um do Dog Days of Summer last summer, sponsored by an HBAC um company, and they were just showing dog photos bumping to commercial breaks, and it had the HBAC company's logo on screen in graphics that, by the way, that we create and we send to the stations.
• 23:09
  Josh Good: Um, so that is one element of it.
• 23:11
  Josh Good: Plus, once you go to upload your picture and scan that QR code, you're delivered more ads and then a click through to the client's website.
• 23:19
  Josh Good: So there are several different elements to a campaign like that.
• 23:24
  Josh Good: Um, but again, we want to make sure that we are setting our partners up for success in no matter the category, but specifically in HVAC because we know how big those budgets are each and every year.
• 23:37
  Josh Good: So we want our partners to be able to go in, get more of that share, and really walk away with a win.
• 23:45
  Mike Boland: Yeah, and that really speaks to what you were talking about earlier.
• 23:48
  Mike Boland: I mean, it's it's not just awareness, it's not just customer acquisition, but it's the um acquisition of that customer data.
• 23:57
  Mike Boland: Um, and and as you noted, um, you know, they can use that to their advantage in in targeting sales practices.
• 24:03
  Mike Boland: Or one other thing that comes to mind for me is in your email marketing, you can sort of segment your lists and have you know targeted campaigns towards people that are coming up for their five-year tune-up or whatever the case may be.
• 24:15
  Mike Boland: I mean, that's gold.
• 24:17
  Josh Good: Yeah, it is.
• 24:18
  Josh Good: And that's what the advertisers want these days.
• 24:21
  Josh Good: They want something that's trackable, they want something that is they can implement easily and quickly and reach out to these people.
• 24:30
  Josh Good: They don't want to wait six months to start reaching out to a list.
• 24:34
  Josh Good: They want to start reaching out this month.
• 24:36
  Josh Good: So that's kind of where Megaphone comes in to be able to help the stations make this happen easily.
• 24:42
  Josh Good: We take care of the heavy lifting on the back end.
• 24:44
  Josh Good: The station takes all the credit, and um, and we help them when it comes renewal time.
• 24:50
  Josh Good: We want stations selling dozens of these campaigns each and every month and each and every year, and we are here to help them facilitate that and work with them on achieving their goals.
• 25:04
  Mike Boland: Yeah.
• 25:04
  Mike Boland: Now, in terms of like best practices, what are the other types of content or vessels, interactive units that that perform particularly well, like in this, in this vertical and in in HVAC settings?
• 25:18
  Mike Boland: I know you talked about the poll.
• 25:20
  Mike Boland: That seems like a great one.
• 25:21
  Mike Boland: Are there others that you've noticed that that perform pretty well?
• 25:25
  Josh Good: Yeah, and and again, it comes back to what is the client's goals.
• 25:29
  Josh Good: So we would we would tackle this on an individual basis depending on what the client was trying to achieve.
• 25:36
  Josh Good: Um, but yeah, they we have, you know, I'd say dozens of different combinations that we can do, if not more, um, and and really be able to customize it per client.
• 25:48
  Josh Good: You could have every commercial break in a single stop set be an interactive commercial, and none of them would look alike, um, other than the fact that they all maybe have a QR code on them.
• 26:00
  Josh Good: So there is a lot of flexibility.
• 26:03
  Josh Good: There's a lot of different products that we have.
• 26:05
  Josh Good: Um, we like to focus on campaigns and and what those campaigns can look like.
• 26:11
  Josh Good: So, yeah, from from polling and trivia to user-generated content to word scramble to the list goes on.
• 26:19
  Josh Good: Um, but that's that's what we're here for, and that's what our ad growth team does is working with the stations on an individual basis to make sure that we are hitting the mark for them and for their client.
• 26:31
  Mike Boland: Yeah.
• 26:32
  Mike Boland: So HVAC also is one of those vertical sort of like retail that can benefit from seasonality in terms of really organic excuses, for lack of a better term, to be to be reaching out to people.
• 26:45
  Mike Boland: Um, so what have you done there in terms of like, you know, winter's coming up, um, you know, your sort of winterization maintenance of your heating system or or flip side on the summer.
• 26:56
  Mike Boland: Um, you know, it seems like there's a lot of opportunity there for seasonality.
• 27:00
  Mike Boland: What have you done there?
• 27:01
  Josh Good: Yeah, we have seen a lot of partners sell 52-week campaigns, right?
• 27:06
  Josh Good: And it's not gonna be the same campaign all year long.
• 27:09
  Josh Good: We can change it on uh whatever frequency the the client would like.
• 27:14
  Josh Good: Um, and we take care of that on the back end.
• 27:16
  Josh Good: Um, so all your team has to do is tell us, hey, it's gonna be a user-generated content campaign for the 4th of July, and then we're gonna pivot to back to school, and then we're gonna do pet photos for the rest of the year.
• 27:31
  Josh Good: So there's a lot of different um options and flexibility that it has.
• 27:36
  Josh Good: So you can get a 52-week commitment from a client, but each and every month it can be a different interactive element and um and keeps it fresh, keeps it engaging, and you can really start to see um who is loyal to that brand by those opt-ins.
• 27:52
  Josh Good: How many times have you had this person opt-in?
• 27:55
  Josh Good: Maybe it's multiple times on multiple different campaigns throughout the year.
• 28:01
  Mike Boland: So are there any sort of specifics in in the HVAC vertical in terms of the KPIs that your partner, the broadcasters, are looking at in terms of retention, in terms of sales rates within their um uh within their regions?
• 28:20
  Mike Boland: Like what's what does success look like for the broadcasters in in these scenarios?
• 28:26
  Josh Good: Yeah, the uh the success I would define as multiple sold campaigns per station um from from different advertisers, but I think from from a station level, that paired with uh renewals, if the renewals are rolling in, that is showing that the proof is in the pudding and it is working.
• 28:47
  Josh Good: And when we have partners all across the country that that is the that's the method, right?
• 28:52
  Josh Good: We wrap up one campaign, we pitch them on the next one, and we just kind of keep this thing rolling.
• 28:56
  Josh Good: Um, so that is our goal as well, to make sure that it is performing well and make sure that we're working closely with our partners to keep an eye on it and um and keep the focus on the renewal, right?
• 29:09
  Josh Good: Because that is that is the most important thing.
• 29:11
  Josh Good: The next, the next most important thing is the renewal.
• 29:15
  Mike Boland: Yeah.
• 29:16
  Mike Boland: And you know, as you noted earlier, it's not just the this in a vacuum, but the presence of megaphone TV's innovation within a bundle, you may, you know, get the the entire bundle is renewed because of that presence.
• 29:34
  Mike Boland: Um so so the stakes are much higher than them them just liking, you know, the sort of the um the interaction, the customer interaction, the data, all the stuff we're talking about, the stakes are higher because it can it can sort of elevate the whole bundle in terms of those those KPIs like renewals, right?
• 29:50
  Josh Good: Yeah, and you're taking a normal 30-second commercial, and now you've added a uh premium element on it, so you're charging the client more for a 30-second spot because you've taken a normal 30 and turned it into an interactive 30.
• 30:05
  Josh Good: And the same thing with in-show sponsorships, and that's something that we're talking to a lot of stations about right now with um with political coming up with the midterms this year.
• 30:14
  Josh Good: We've got, you know, the like the real likelihood that your commercials are gonna get bumped.
• 30:20
  Josh Good: So the HVAC company is in jeopardy and your relationship could be in jeopardy as well.
• 30:26
  Josh Good: Because if you have to bump a lot of their commercials, they're gonna be pretty unhappy with you.
• 30:30
  Josh Good: Trust me, been there, done that, got the t-shirt.
• 30:33
  Josh Good: So on the flip side of that, if we can help stations get their really big clients into an in-show sponsorship, whether that's uh dog walking forecast in in weather, where you know, we're accepting user-generated content and showing off people's pet pictures, if that's where for a quarter of the year you put that budget, um, that's a good idea so that we can make sure that we are salvaging those relationships and keeping that inventory safe if it's going to go inside of content time.
• 31:06
  Mike Boland: Yeah, I mean that that goes back to the adaptability theme you talked about earlier, but here it's on a different level.
• 31:11
  Mike Boland: It's adaptable in that it sort of transcends the fact that you can only put it within like a typical spot.
• 31:17
  Mike Boland: You just mentioned a bunch of other places where it can live.
• 31:20
  Josh Good: Yeah, yeah.
• 31:21
  Josh Good: And and it is it is adaptable.
• 31:23
  Josh Good: Um, being from the news side, I I know the separation of church and state.
• 31:28
  Josh Good: So we have partners who are very careful on what we put in show, understandably.
• 31:33
  Josh Good: So we're here to help them with what they want us, where they want the focus to be.
• 31:39
  Josh Good: If that's in show sponsorships, great.
• 31:42
  Josh Good: If that's in commercial time, great.
• 31:44
  Josh Good: If it's both, fantastic.
• 31:45
  Josh Good: Let's do it.
• 31:46
  Mike Boland: Yeah, absolutely.
• 31:48
  Mike Boland: So we're sort of winding down on time here, but I want to sort of end on a sort of actionable note, which is that, you know, the the BIA audience um are a lot of the folks that that you work with, a lot of the folks we're talking about in the broadcast world.
• 32:04
  Mike Boland: If any of them are out there thinking, this sounds cool, like what how can I get this?
• 32:10
  Mike Boland: Like what's how do you usually sort of like what's step one uh with sort of new new folks that you work with?
• 32:17
  Josh Good: Yeah, absolutely.
• 32:18
  Josh Good: Just reach out to us.
• 32:19
  Josh Good: You can find us at megaphone tv.com, you can book a demo through our website.
• 32:24
  Josh Good: Um, and something I don't think that I have mentioned is the interactive pitch decks that we do are closing globally at a 46% rate.
• 32:33
  Josh Good: That's not us selling broadcasters, that is broadcasters going in with the pitch deck, and almost half of the time they're walking out with the sale.
• 32:41
  Josh Good: So keep that in mind as well.
• 32:43
  Josh Good: Um, but you can absolutely reach out to us, megaphone tv.com.
• 32:47
  Josh Good: You can book a demo there.
• 32:48
  Josh Good: We'll walk through it.
• 32:49
  Josh Good: And also, um, we are offering right now a two-month free trial for anybody that wants to sign up.
• 32:56
  Josh Good: No commitment after that.
• 32:57
  Josh Good: So you're more than welcome to try megaphone, see what it's all about, see what we do, and see how we're gonna help change your revenue for your station.
• 33:06
  Mike Boland: Yeah.
• 33:06
  Mike Boland: Well, that's a good place to end it.
• 33:09
  Mike Boland: Um, and that's all the time we have.
• 33:10
  Mike Boland: So I want to thank you, Josh, for joining us today.
• 33:13
  Josh Good: Mike, thank you so much.
• 33:14
  Josh Good: I appreciate it.
• 33:15
  Mike Boland: Yeah, this was fun.
• 33:17
  Mike Boland: And thanks everyone for listening.
• 33:18
  Mike Boland: This has been BIA's leading local podcast.
• 33:21
  Mike Boland: I'm Mike Boland.
• 33:22
  Mike Boland: Please like and subscribe, and we will catch you on the next one.